Display MoreI have listened to the album more recently and I have picked
The dividing line
Uncertain weather
Shipwrecked
The title track is also strong and Not about us.
Great title track albeit ruined slightly by a fade out that deserved to have a nice guitar or keyboard outro.
Great title track albeit ruined slightly by a fade out that deserved to have a nice guitar or keyboard outro.
True. Apparently the fadeouts were a consequence of writing the most of the material with a drum machine. When they took the songs out on the road, songs such as Congo and Calling All Stations had well written endings.
Display MoreWhile it's not in my top 3, I often feel I'm the only person on the planet who loves Small Talk
i have to disagree i love it too. That one sticks in my head the most. Ive listened to calling all stations probably more then anyone here. I really liked it. I was soooo excited for genesis to tour america with it and it fell apart. Its not peter its not phil. Its Ray Wilson. But it truly did sound like a genesis album. Mike and tony are genesis.
This is my order.
The dividing Line
There Must Be Some Other Way
Calling All Stations
Small Talk
Uncertain Weather
Congo
Alien Afternoon
Shipwrecked
Not About Us
If That's What You Need
One Man's Fool
I had no idea about people's thoughts on this album, other than generally it's not that popular . I picked my three favourites and blow and behold they turn out to be the top three picks. DL NAU and CAS. OF
The Dividing Line, Not About Us and One Man's Fool for me
I fucking love this album.
Calling all stations, dividing line and there must be some other way.
I became a Genesis fan with We Can't Dance so this is the only studio album for which I was able to experience the release as an established, massive fan. It will always hold a special place for me if for no reason other than that.
However, I also love the music on it anyway. The title track is one of those rare tunes that sounds cold and fiery at the same time. The vocal performance is awesome. Congo is a great dark pop song. Uncertain weather is a classic Banks ballad with the same kind of yearning as Heathaze. Banjo Man is a cool song too, and Run Out of Time is a bit overwrought but what a great, smoky sound. I really wish they had pushed on from this album.
I have to say, I wasn't keeping up with the band by the this point. WCD was the first tour I hadn't seen since 1981, which I now regret, and I didn't even buy CAS when it came out. I was still listening to the pre-WCD stuff though.
When I did eventually buy it I was really surprised, and I like it a lot more than is common it seems. It's not perfect, but neither was WCD by any means.
I think several songs stand out - for me One Man's Fool is one of the best songs post ABACAB. Good first half, followed by a fantastic second half.
I also went for TMBSOW and TDL.
I fucking love this album.
Aye, aye Mr Potty Mouth! 
I don't know whether it's the placebo effect but I do think that the remix of this album does give it a warmer sound that benefits both the music and the singing. Okay, no amount of studio jiggery pokery is ever going to make Ray Wilson sound like Nat King Cole but I do think it sounds a lot better now.
Listening recently to some of the performances of Congo from the tour shows how a great song could have been taken to an even greater level, what with the guitar solo and everything. In fact, it caused me to revisit my own remix of the album and with a little studio jiggery pokery of my own, I've integrated the guitar solo into the song and I lke the result very much.
Bought CAS the day it was released. Unfortunately the album quickly sank into the abyss here in America and the band canceled the US leg of the tour. Major bummer. My 3 faves:
Congo
Not About Us
Dividing Line
Listening recently to some of the performances of Congo from the tour shows how a great song could have been taken to an even greater level, what with the guitar solo and everything. In fact, it caused me to revisit my own remix of the album and with a little studio jiggery pokery of my own, I've integrated the guitar solo into the song and I lke the result very much.
What was your process for integrating the live solo to the studio song and what version did you use? Have not the inclination, skills or tools to try anything like that myself but I am curious about it.
Randomly, I vividly remember princess Diana died the weekend of the album's release. It was the kind of event that swamped all other news at the time and Elton John's song became the only relevant thing in music for about two weeks. Felt like the little bit of momentum from the pre-release PR campaign for CAS was killed stone dead. Also the video for Congo cost over a million quid.
I'll defend my love for CAS to the death. I wouldn't remove it from my 4 'tier one' Genesis albums for anything. Hmmm... TOTT, Abacab, Duke, CAS. Couldn't have a traditional top 5 as the last spot would rotate between a 'tier two' list of NC, SEBTP, Trespass, Lamb, W&W and WCD. Everything else is great but is 'tier three'. All of which said, songs from tier three albums like home by the sea, mama and tonight tonight tonight are in my top ten Genesis songs so the whole construct is a load of shite.
songs from tier three albums like home by the sea, mama and tonight tonight tonight are in my top ten Genesis songs so the whole construct is a load of shite.
Bit much to dismiss it as a load of shite. I have a similar thing in that my favourite Genesis album is Lamb, followed by Abacab, then a 'rotation' as you put it of Duke, SEBTP and NC. After that it's a bit of an amorphous mass except I can say that ATTWT and W&W are my least-liked albums, yet from those two 'bottom-placed' albums come 4 of my favourite Genesis tracks, probably all top 10. Those 2 albums are back-to-back so they were obviously, for me, creatively in a dip but still did 4 tracks across that period that are among my very favourites.
So I've sort of got 3 tiers of album preferences but I find it an interesting oddity that the two lowest albums yield 4 of my favourite tracks, rather than thinking it condemns my scheme of preferences as shite!
What was your process for integrating the live solo to the studio song and what version did you use? Have not the inclination, skills or tools to try anything like that myself but I am curious about it.
It's actually not that difficult. First step is to get yourself an editing program. A free one like Audacity will do.
The source for my edit was the Nick Davis remix, Ray Wilson's Live With The Berlin Symphony In Poland and one of the bootlegs from the Calling All Stations tour (either Poland or Mannheim, I'm not sure). Luckily, the 'live' performances were at the same tempo as the studio version, although the version on Ray's album was in a different key (changing the key wasn't a problem as I wasn't using a section with vocals in it).
Ray's version of the song has the guitar solo occur immediately after the bridge and I thought that worked well so I followed suit. So, it's bridge, solo from the Ray album and then solo from the Genesis concert and then back into the studio version.
Getting the solo to the point where it integrated seamlessly with the sound of the studio cut involved a lot of fiddling with EQ, compression and all that jazz but I didn't mind. My fan-edits are a labour of love for me (not for my wife, though; she hates them! "Can't we just listen to the album as it was intended?" she will often say.) and I'll work on them for as long as it takes. Many's the time when I've committed something to disc only to decide, after a few listens, that I need to go back and do it again.
Display MoreIt's actually not that difficult. First step is to get yourself an editing program. A free one like Audacity will do.
The source for my edit was the Nick Davis remix, Ray Wilson's Live With The Berlin Symphony In Poland and one of the bootlegs from the Calling All Stations tour (either Poland or Mannheim, I'm not sure). Luckily, the 'live' performances were at the same tempo as the studio version, although the version on Ray's album was in a different key (changing the key wasn't a problem as I wasn't using a section with vocals in it).
Ray's version of the song has the guitar solo occur immediately after the bridge and I thought that worked well so I followed suit. So, it's bridge, solo from the Ray album and then solo from the Genesis concert and then back into the studio version.
Getting the solo to the point where it integrated seamlessly with the sound of the studio cut involved a lot of fiddling with EQ, compression and all that jazz but I didn't mind. My fan-edits are a labour of love for me (not for my wife, though; she hates them! "Can't we just listen to the album as it was intended?" she will often say.) and I'll work on them for as long as it takes. Many's the time when I've committed something to disc only to decide, after a few listens, that I need to go back and do it again.
Thanks for the details. Sounds like a fun hobby!
Bit much to dismiss it as a load of shite. I have a similar thing in that my favourite Genesis album is Lamb, followed by Abacab, then a 'rotation' as you put it of Duke, SEBTP and NC. After that it's a bit of an amorphous mass except I can say that ATTWT and W&W are my least-liked albums, yet from those two 'bottom-placed' albums come 4 of my favourite Genesis tracks, probably all top 10. Those 2 albums are back-to-back so they were obviously, for me, creatively in a dip but still did 4 tracks across that period that are among my very favourites.
So I've sort of got 3 tiers of album preferences but I find it an interesting oddity that the two lowest albums yield 4 of my favourite tracks, rather than thinking it condemns my scheme of preferences as shite!
That's funny you have a similar thing going. I guess genesis is that sort of band where fans have material they love, material they like and material that's more in the 'lukewarm' category... and one fans preferences are totally different to another's. Maybe that's part of why they're so interesting.
Thanks for the details. Sounds like a fun hobby!
It really is! It started when the Genesis remixes came out. I thought, no way am I putting those in my car to get bashed about. At first, I thought I'd just copy the albums onto a CDR, along with the respective B-sides, as I saw fit.
The first album I did was Invisible Touch. As someone who actually likes what John Potoker did with the remixes of three of the songs off that album, I thought I'd try and take what I liked from his remixes and edit them into the studio versions of the songs. I have my own home studio because I'm a professional singer so I'm used to mixing and mastering my own stuff so I already had the gear I needed to do the job.
Combine that with a good ear and a deathless love for the music and here we are!
It's not something that would appeal to everyone. I know most people are probably purists where this stuff is concerned and they would see what I'm doing as sacrilege. But what I do is for me and I have a lot of fun doing it. Obviously, I've bought all the albums that I'm working with and I would never make copies of this stuff for anyone else (although people have done similar things on the Movement site and there doesn't appear to be an issue with it).
The first album I did was Invisible Touch. As someone who actually likes what John Potoker did with the remixes of three of the songs off that album, I thought I'd try and take what I liked from his remixes and edit them into the studio versions of the songs. I have my own home studio because I'm a professional singer so I'm used to mixing and mastering my own stuff so I already had the gear I needed to do the job.
Sorry for hijacking the thread about CAS even further, but your comment about Potoker's remixes for IT reminded me that I prefer his remix of LOC to the original album version - it's fantastic! 
Sorry for hijacking the thread about CAS even further, but your comment about Potoker's remixes for IT reminded me that I prefer his remix of LOC to the original album version - it's fantastic!
Oh yes! It just amps up everything that's great about that song and takes it to another level. Small wonder that both Phil and Genesis used him during this period; the work he did is proof of just how vital a remix can be.
the Best are there must be some other way and dividing line
there must be some other way
Tony's solo on this has got to be one of the one of the very best moments of not just this album but their entire recording career. It still moves me to this day.
